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not so trivial…trivia

I’m overdue for a bit of trivia…a little of this…a little of that. Pieces of information fluttering like moths round a flame, in this case…my brain. So here they go…flying straight towards you…

Remember Rachel Beckwith, the 9-year-old who died in a 15 car collision on I-90 heading West into Seattle. Months before, she’d asked family and friends to donate money toward Charity:Water, in lieu of gifts for her birthday. At the time she was $80 short of the $300 goal she’d set for herself. Undeterred, Rachel planned to contribute again next year. Upon hearing her story, people began donating from all over. Recently, news reports indicated that contributions were in excess of $1,500,000. No more “tears in heaven.” Rachel must be smiling…knowing that she has helped bring water to Africans in need.

Image via Wikipedia

As I was getting myself ready this morning, the radio was turned on to my usual jazz station. A song was playing but at first I wasn’t listening to the lyrics. After hearing the refrain a couple of times I focused upon the line “Mona Lisa was a man.” I’d never heard the song before but I could picture the portrait with the infamous smile. Sure enough I thought “Why not? Men wore their hair like the model in the famous painting.”

I’ve not heard it positively proven that she was, in fact, a she. There’s only been speculation as to the person’s identity. What an intriguing thought…don’t you think? Maybe that’s why the smile. Only the model and the artist know for sure. Perhaps they were having the last laugh. They might have been the first gay couple…who “came out”…without “coming out.” I know! I know! Leonardo da Vinci…gay? Why not? Europeans have a more liberal perspective of sexuality. An interesting thought…and not far-fetched in my estimation. In fact, in googling the possibility, I came across an Italian researcher who made this exact claim in February of this year. Click here to read more. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352915/Mona-Lisa-model-man-Was-Leonardo-da-Vincis-male-apprentice-model.html

Have you ever heard of the foreign accent syndrome? Neither did I. TV’s Inside Edition ran a segment on the rare occurrence. It seems when the brain suffers injury to a particular area and works toward recovery, it may change the victim’s language to one that’s totally foreign. Following are a couple of Youtube videos of women who were afflicted with FAS. And these are not stories from Ripley’s believe it or not!